Where's the Video in iPhone 3.0?

In today's fascinating "reveal" of the next-gen 3.0 software for the Apple iPhone, one feature was totally ignored: Video recording and playback. It's a glaring omission from an otherwise impressive set of announcements. Why wasn't video functionality included?

Confirming the pre-event rumors, many of the expected "missing functions" of the iPhone were added to Apple's touchscreen phone—including the ability to copy and paste text, as well as multimedia messaging. But there was no talk of video.

Even when the Apple team talked about the files you could send over the new integrated MMS function there was no mention of video—contact cards, audio files and locations were all that came up. There was a single hint that some imagery could be included, when the new Messaging app was demonstrated and a camera icon was visible, but that's most likely to connect to the camera for photo-taking, which is how the iPhone currently works, and is what most people use multimedia messaging for anyway.

But video recording is such an obvious missing feature on a phone that will otherwise be much improved by the 3.0 firmware that it must be somewhere. And since today's event concentrated on the core firmware of the device and its supporting SDK for developers, that leaves one place left for video recording to "hide." The next-gen iPhone—which is due this summer, at the same time that the iPhone's 3.0 update becomes available to consumers.

Dare we expect the device to have a bigger than 3-megapixel camera, video recording, and possibly even the luxury of a flash or other photo-light? Yes, I think we dare. Nearly every other cellphone out there—be it smart or even dumb—is getting better photography hardware than the existing iPhones, and some are even pushing towards ridiculous double-figure megapixels. And there's nothing in the new firmware revealed today that doesn't support video functions.